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OMG Batman Live was amazing! It is worth seeing if you can, honestly. There are a few moments were I started laughing when I shouldn’t have. Like when Bruce was explaining to Dick what happened to his parents and when he said Zorro he rolled the r’s so hard that it sounded like he was stroking out in the middle of the word. Or when you are rooting for the death of the Graysons and it takes a while for them to fall, then you just feel like an ass. And there are a few moments were it is like, fucking really, because they have to shove every reference they can for what ever reason. My favorite was in the span of five mintues, Bruce pretty repetes the pharse, The night my parents were murder, we saw the Mask of Zorro. Oh, and Robin gets the name from Robin Hood, not the nick name his mother gave him. That kinda bugged me because they bother to metion Julie Madison. Anyways, totally worth seeing. And Alfred proved he was more liked than anything else, because when he came on stage for the first time, he got more cheers, than the freaking Batmoble or The Goddamn Batman himself. I will do a more indepth blog post about it when I get over the freaking awesomeness that it was.

Yup, Nothing promotes Father and son togetherness like getting your nuts frozen in Russia.

So I’m super excited to see Batman Live tomorrow! It will be fun to see how great how well a group of British do Batman. Okay, that was awkward sentence. So I really don’t have much of a blog post that I can think of right now. Just that I get to see Batman live and that it is going to be awesome no matter what. The only down side is that it doesn’t have the bat beard. But that is okay, I will let you all know how it goes.

Some things can’t be perfect. And No, I will never get over this panel. So get used to it and hail the Bat Beard.

It’s going to be amazing.I mean, look at the damn Batmoblie.

And the last thing I wanted to say, is I noticed that the search for Wonder Woman and Superman have brought a lot of people to my blog. And it weird me out, because I’m not sure what it means. I’m in process of writing a pretty long blog post comparing the New 52 Justice League to Kingdom Come, the only time where the relationship, in my opinion worked. It should be up monday, so those people searching this, are welcome to come back and read that. I would love to hear some opinions on it. But I will say this, I feel that they had to take away what made both Diana and Clark special to make this happen. The two of them in Justice League, for the most part, come off as weird forms of Batman, which I will get into more later. And that this is all for Superman, it is obvious if you look at the way it has been promoted. It is Superman getting a new Leading Lady, she is his sexy side; A woman whom we have seen in the old cannon kick ass and take names all on her own. And Before someone jumps down my throat and says that Good Morning American said that she was the sexy sidekick, and a homewercker, that is a video that DC posted on their facebook page. Like they were proud of the fact that someone called the most powerful female character a sidekick. Which is funny, because every fight that I have ever seen of Batman and Superman, Batman wins. Every fight Wonder Woman and Batman has is always a two hit one. She hits him, he hits the floor. Superman can’t beat Batman, but Wonder Woman can. But what do I know, she is his sexy side kick.

This also duck tails into something else for me, 40 years ago, Wonder Woman graced the cover of one of the first feminist magazines, Ms. Magazine. I have begun to wonder if the new 52 Wonder Woman has any of those qualities that had her grace the cover in the first place. I also find myself wanting to point people to this article about Diana, found here. Diana was written for women, for young girls because there was no strong female characters for girls to look up to. Right now, she is being written for men, she is a sex object, she is just Superman’s girlfriend. They have made her powerless. But I will get more into this later.

I picked this one up because Wwayne suggested this series to me a while back on one of my blog post. I had been meaning to pick up the trade but haven’t been able to find it. I was also a little too lazy to find issue one. So here we go.

I don’t know much about Animal Man. In fact the only comic I have with him in it is from the Blackest Night when he is a black lantern and talking about screwing Starfire. I had a feeling that wasn’t his normal personality so I will just ignore that. That and the DC Nation short were he acts like animals. While funny, I doubt that is how he is.

It was fun to go with something with no idea what I was getting into.

It starts out with a different Animal man being killed, and the alien animals deciding who is going to be the next Animal man. They pick Buddy Baker, an actor in Hollywood. I think what is so fun about this series is it that has a pretty good sense of humor to it, which seems to be lacking in a lot of the comics I read. Ellen, his wife seems a fun character as well, and this really pushed me to want to get the trade and put this on the pull list I have. (I need something to replace Justice League.) It’s fun, it’s good, the characters aren’t phoning it in and have seemed to have some personality to them. And the Story is interesting.

The Best part for me is that the family feels like a real family and that the relationship Buddy and Ellen feel real too. I know there wasn’t much of them in this issue, but there was enough and that wanted to make me read more.

I’m afraid I don’t have too much to say about this one. I enjoyed it. It made me laugh and there was just something about the ton it has. It looks at both sides of being a hero really well, doing heroic things and spending time with the people you love.

I also think it was interesting that they are implying that Ellen’s and Buddy’s new baby is going to be meta in some way. That got me to want to read more.

I love this panel. I just want to stuff Damian full of chocolate till he can’t move.

I liked this issue. I love this issue for a lot of reasons. One of them is because I do love Damian as a character. Here is a kid, for all reason, should be a homicidal manic, but at the end of the day, wants to be good. He wants to be a hero like Bruce. I think a lot of fans who hate on him forget that fact. This child wants to do good, his mother just gave him a really shitty tool set in life to do that. And he is making the effort to overcome it. This character is so complex it is amazing to me. And people hate him for some reason. I’m amusing it is loyalty to Tim.

It is nice to see the different parenting styles that both Talia and Bruce have. Talia is clearly more insane, and in the first arc of Batman and Robin, we do see Bruce actively try to figure out how to parent his kid. Because he wants Damian to do well, and realizes that he has no idea what to do with the boy. Talia just like keeping her distance from him, and anything she does with him that could be seen as mothering is very uncomfortable for her.

Mostly because she treats him like a small adult and any time he acts like a real small child she ignores it. Yet again we are in the position were this kid’s most loving parent is the Goddamn Batman. I believe that is screwed squared. But it is more than that. It is almost clear to the reader that Talia is in love with the idea of Damian but not really interested in the people he really is. And that is heartbreaking when you think about it. She doesn’t love her son, she loves the idea of her son. And when he isn’t something she wanted, she puts a hit on him. After all, that is what Batman Inc is going on about right now.

The other thing I enjoyed about this comic is that you see from an early age Damian has an interest on who is father is, and it boards into an obsession for him. And it is yet again, Talia who is created the distance. It makes you wonder how things would have played out if Bruce had any idea Damian existed when he was a baby what would have happened.

I love how they have been working on the father son relationship between Bruce and Damian, especially in the earlier arc of this series. The second arc they have has been more about Damian just trying to find himself in the Robin ranked; failing to realize he didn’t have to worry about his place because he is Robin. I feel like this issue was just showing were Damian’s desire on knowing where he came from as another piece of that puzzle. Issue 8 comes to mind as probably the most beautiful moment in the new 52, were Bruce tells Damian he just wants him to be himself. I can’t think of anything, anything in the new 52 that tops that moment.

I challenge anyone to find something more perfect moment in the new 52. And you can’t. So live with it. Yea, this and the three pages leading up to it, is amazing.

This kind of thing would never happen in Justice League, it just won’t. Because the level of shit those characters give, is in-fuckin-visiable.

I really, really miss JLI. I know it hasn’t been canceled long, but damn it, I already miss it. It is a hole in my life now. We got the annual, and now, I feel empty.

I saw that a lot of people were complaining that JLI wasn’t funny like it was supposed to be. But Honestly, I gave more shits about the characters in it than I did than those asshats in Justice League. And that has been my number one complaint about JL. That no one has a personality.Go back and check, I will wait. JLI was good because it bothered to give the characters characterizations. Justice League, aside from Batman, they really have no personalities. Hal says funny things when the mode strikes him, Diana is just someone who stands around. Clark is trying to be Batman so hard it hurts; Arthur is just there like Barry. If you look at JLI, There was something going on there. Godvia was attracted to Booster, trying to understand what she really wanted to be on the team; because she was so far out of her element, and not afraid to admit. She had/has more personality than the whole fucking Justice League. THAT IS A GOODDAMN PROBLEM GUYS.( (I have dropped Justice League. You don’t even bother to have Superman and Wonder Woman have more than two words together, and now they are a couple? No, No, No, I will not read that shitty writing. It was forced and you know it. And I know it is going to be short lived and now we are going to be in that weird stupid position that Wonder Woman is going to be waiting for whomever Superman ends up with to die so she can have him. Heaven Forbid that a Man and Woman just be fucking friends. And I liked their brother and sister relationship because it was fun. And natural.)) I knew where Booster Gold and Guy stood with each other. I, for the life of me, can’t tell you how Superman and Batman feel about each other. They hang outside of the league, sure, but I really can’t tell you if they like each other. It doesn’t feel like they are going out and grabbing coffee and shooting the shit like friends would. Just I need help to punch someone and then get the fuck out of my life.

Godvia, the woman with more personality than the whole Justice League combined.

JLI, yea, they were stuck with each other, but damn it they tried to care about each other. They tried to make bonds with each other. Guy and Booster were upset when half the crew ended up in the hospital and Red Rocket end up dead. I just don’t feel that if something like that happened in Justice League, no one would really give three shits about it. No Joke. I don’t feel like any of those characters have bothered to foster any kind of relationship within the five fucking years they have been working together. They met up, punch shit, walk away. Batman acts like a douche canoe, but that is his default setting so we can just ignore him; everyone else, really doesn’t have an excuse. They didn’t keep the spirits of a lot of these characters, like Diana and Clark, and so they are all just douches who are hanging out. If you could call it that. They all seem to dislike one another, so it makes you wonder why they are bothering in the first place.

But what is most upseting, is that Justice League could be good. If they had spent some time doing characterization and not treating characters like props, things that have done could have worked. If they had laid ground work for Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship, it could be a good read. But I don’t feel like they did. It is just, we should be together because we dress alike and hit things real hard. Because that is what they have boiled everything down to. And that is shitty writing.

And I can’t for the life of me, understand why it is selling. Unless people are hoping it will get better. The writting will get better when we force their hand, when we make them work to get our money again, people.

I think the thing about this that bothers me the most is that I feel the wrong comic got cancelled. A well written comic got trashed and one that doesn’t even bother defining characters is selling well. It is a little heartbreaking to me.

Which makes me want to say, Buy Batwoman, she is fucking awesome and well done. Hell, I think it is better than Wonder Woman. I would hate to see that one cancelled.